Someone found the Blue Jays bats, Jays beat Orioles

Blue Jays 11 Orioles 4

It's about time we started hitting.

It certainly is more fun watching games when you are hitting. I'm hoping it isn't just that Ubaldo Jimenez was terrible, though he was terrible, but we'll hope that the this is the game that starts a hot stretch with the bats.

Some of the offensive highlights:

• Melky Cabrera: 2 for 6, with a double. He has hit in all 13 games.
• Colby Rasmus: 3 for 4, with a home run and a double and 3 RBI.
• Jose Bautista: 2 for 5, home run and 3 RBI.
• Adam Lind: 3 for 3, with 2 walks.
• Edwin Encarnacion: 3 for 4, 2 doubles and a walk, 2 RBI.
• Brett Lawrie: 2 for 5, home run and double. So good to see him hit the ball hard.
• Ryan Goins: 1 for 4 with a walk. His hit (a single) hit the right field wall on the fly.
• Jonathan Diaz: put down the best suicide squeeze bunt you will ever see. Pitch was up and out of the strike zone, but Diaz got the bat up above the ball and put it on the ground. Just a great job.

17 hits in all. I doubt we've had 17 hits over any two game stretch.

Mark Buehrle went 7 innings, allowed just 5 hits, no walks, 2 strikeouts, and just the 1 earned run. He is 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA. He was helped by some great defense. Lawrie made a couple of great plays. Rasmus had 2 terrific catches in CF. Bautista made a nice catch too.

I'm wondering if the difference between Buehrle this year and last is mostly the defense behind him. Last year we couldn't make a play, Lawrie was hurt, Reyes was hurt, Melky couldn't run. The defense was just terrible. This year it is much better.

There were a couple of bad moments, hardly worth mentioning now. Bautista was thrown out at second, trying to stretch a double. Diaz double clutched on a ball that should have been an easy out, but he turned it into a single, I'd have called it an error. And Esmil Rogers gave up back-to-back homers to Chris Davis and Matt Wieters, in the 8th. Fortunately the game was won by then.

And the left field line ball girl made a nice grab on a ball Edwin hit down the line, unfortunately it was fair. I thought Lind might have scored from first on the play, if she hadn't made the play. But we scored the runners, so we can forgive, now. . Most of us make our mistakes with less people watching.

Maicer Izturis came out of the game, after the top of the first, with a sprained knee. No word yet on if he will have to go on the DL. Colby Rasmus came out of the game in the 6th, likely just to give him some rest and let Moises Sierra get a few innings. Jose Bautista played the last three innings in CF.

Jays of the Day: Buehrle (.203 WPA), Rasmus (.177), Encarnacion (.151) and I'm giving one to Lawrie, .095, not counting the great plays on defense.

No Suckage Jays. Navarro had the low mark at -.081.

Back above .500, 7-6 and, likely, back into a tie for first. The Rays are losing 12-4 to the Reds I write this. We start a series in Minnesota on Tuesday...hmmm if I left now I could drive to Minneapolis and get there for that game....Brandon Morrow starts for the Jays.  Phil Hughes, with a 7.20 ERA starts for the Twins.

Nice to see the hitters having fun, it seems like a long time since that has happened.

We had 1407 comments in the game thread. Pretty good for a Sunday afternoon game. And a very pleasant thread, thanks to all for joining in.  Pikachu let the way again, though I gave him a bit of a battle today.